B&N to Launch 8GB Nook Tablet Tomorrow

If you've been wondering if Barnes & Noble has felt the effect of the Kindle Fire, I think we got an answer today. The Verge has a leaked screen shot from Walmart.

According the their stock management system, the retail giant is going to be carrying a new Nook Tablet on Wednesday. It's listed with retail of $199, and it only has half the Flash storage of the $249 model.

In case it's not clear, this new NT is a direct response to the Kindle Fire. It costs the same as the KF and it has the same amount of storage. And that means that B&N has just shown us that price does indeed trump specs and features. Of course, it still falls short of the KF by only letting the user have 1GB of storage, but it also has the card slot, which is more than you can say about the KF.

If you want one, check your local B&N store tomorrow. I know that The Verge's screen shot it will be in Walmart on Wednesday, but my sources inside B&N reported that over the weekend they received that signage and merchandize that they were supposed to put out on Tuesday. I couldn't get anyone to open the packages, but I'd say that we now know what's in them.

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Nate Hoffelder

Nate Hoffelder is the founder and editor of The Digital Reader. He has been blogging about indie authors since 2010 while learning new tech skills weekly. He fixes author sites, and shares what he learns on The Digital Reader's blog. In his spare time, he fosters dogs for A Forever Home, a local rescue group.

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18 Comments

flyingtoastr20 February, 2012

SD Card slot: Check. Double the RAM: Check Open eBook format: Check Don’t have to pay an extra $80 a year to get access to content: Check

Uh, you seem to think that the *only* way to get content and Apps onto a FIRE is via Prime. That is not remotely true. The FIRE is an open Android tablet that handles side-loaded content and apps just fine. And you don’t need to hack it to do it.

My point is that Nate loves to sing the praises of Amazon Prime stuff but never mentions that it does cost a fair chunk of change that no other Tablet requires. If you want a Kindle Fire that does everything he says in his reviews (“Connectivity to Amazon’s ebooks, video and audio content is second to none with the Fire”, for instance, in his “Lessons Learned” post, with no mention of the cost of access to those features), you have to shell out some extra money. Period.

I wouldn’t assume too much yet, you don’t necessarily get a $50 reduction by just halving the storage capacity.

While there’s no such thing as having to pay an extra $80 a year to get access to content. Amazon Prime is not mandatory and it’s just for privileged services. So you can get access to some free videos and get free two day shipping for anything you purchase that qualifies for Amazon Prime, which is anything that ships directly from their warehouses.

But you can still rent/buy digital videos from Amazon without a Prime account, and even with a Prime account there are still videos you’d still have to pay for anyway. So up to each customer as to whether they find that option worth it or not.

Nope. Not right now. Not with 8GB. Not sure $150 would do it, either. Not with all the lockdowns and restrictions. There’s a shakedown coming… …and I think this is a good time to sit tight and wait for the dust to settle.

Who are you kidding? BN’s store is very limited, and there are about 40-50 useful apps other than games that are not offered. But let’s be honest, 99.9% of the apps in Google’s walled garden and Amazon’s walled garden and Apple’s walled garden are absolute pointless junk.

I just find it funny that people think just because the garden’s bigger that it isn’t walled. I spend time in 4 walled gardens – Google, Amazon, Apple, and BN. I find I spend more time in Apple’s and BN’s, mostly because the other two have such much annoying riff raff attending them. NONE of the 4 give me the 100% tablet experience I want, but even the most limited of them gives me 90% of what I use most often.

I think “shopping center” is a more appropriate metaphor for all of them since all of them have one main purpose – to extract your money.

– Google’s like Manhattan – it’s got everything you want and a lot that you don’t, a lot of beautiful parts and a lot of really ugly parts with pickpockets running around and surveillance all over the place. – Amazon’s like Wal-Mart – I buy there stuff all the time but I still wish it was a lot more comfortable and a lot cleaner, I like it but there’s no reason to love it; I get in, get what I need, and get out as fast as possible. – BN’s like Macy’s – it doesn’t have everything and the prices are a little higher, but the wheat is separated from the chaff and the employees are nicer; there isn’t as much to browse as Wal-Mart but browsing is such a drag at Wal-Mart that I rather get out than browse so I browse at Macy’s instead. – Apple’s like Nordstrom – I like going there even when I’m not spending money because it’s such a pleasant place, the good far outweighs the bad so much that I’m actually willing to ignore the handful of things they don’t have because quite frankly those few things would bring in extremely annoying people that would actually ruin the whole experience.

7NOOK Tablet- 16GB: 1GB = 1 billion bytes. Actual formatted capacity may be less. 13GB for content, of which 12GB is reserved for NOOK Store content. If you want additional memory for personal content, you may use a microSD card of up to 32GB. If you want to re-configure the internal memory of your NOOK Tablet-16GB for additional personal storage, you need to visit your local Barnes & Noble on or after 3/12/12 for help in doing so.